Source imagery: composition space

The space in which one of my interviewees writes his music compositions.
Will be used as reference for drawing a background for a scene of animation.

Rilke: "Letters to a young poet"

Found this book online:

http://www.carrothers.com/rilke_main.htm

Someone in my course suggested it to me, letters written by Rilke to a young man trying to choose between a writing career or joining the army. Relevant themes.

Source imagery

Below are images I am using as sources for my animation. I find it better to link these here than print them out (waste of trees/they are contained neatly in one place).

Two variations on the ouroboros: the cyclic/destructive nature of believing you are not good enough.

Snow Storm: Hannibal and his army crossing the Alps” 1812 - Turner

Landscape with the Falls of Clyde, c.1845 - Turner

Almost featureless landscapes, sense of movement but also dissolving/unclear/uncertain. I also admire how disastrous events e.g. burning of the houses of Parliament are treated in much the same way as tranquil landscapes.



CONTAINS FOOTAGE OF HUMAN CADAVERS. This is a good starting point for animating abstract images of muscles building (representing physical exertion in dance).

I will animate some sound poetry in a very literal way. Diagrams of how we speak every consonant and vowel in English.

And something a bit more disney...

William Kentridge

This is more interesting than various articles about the man that I read. I prefer to hear his own words as well.

There are various cross-overs in his work and my intended work. He speaks of using other peoples pain as subject matter and how this may be a way to be compassionate. I will be looking not necessarily at pain, although some elements might be painful, but will focus more on abstract negative and usually unacknowledged parts of the creative process and and use their visualisation as a catharsis of sorts.

"there's something about studying those heads for hours that becomes a compassionate act for me, even though on the one hand you can say it's very cold-bloodedly and ghoulishly looking at disaster or using other peoples pain as raw material for the work... I mean that's what every artist does they use other peoples pain as well as their own raw material..."

Kentridge then goes on to say that the compassion of spending hours with a subject hopefully redeems the abusive nature of exploiting painful experience. Aside from these conceptual factors the materiality of his animation work I find particularly compelling, the paper is like a surface for a performance. This is how I would like to approach my animation also.





Couldn't find many whole animation artworks on the internet (only snippets interspersed with into interviews) but found this work. An interesting look at a different form of delivery of stop motion animation:



What Will Come 2007

Contemporary portraiture as "portraits that aren't"

In the creation of artworks there always seem to be ideas that are in gestation that don't get mentioned explicitly. I've been thinking about sourcing my artwork from others. I have scanned some scribbly notes I made last night about potential further directions of my artmaking... I know this is something that would normally be included in a process diary, but it's important here because it has redirected my line of research:

I've been reading today about contemporary portraiture, some artist practices and the way they approach notions of identity. I'd like to look at the way the public identifies the genius.

"If artists such as Yasumasa Morimura delight in facilitating recognition, UK artist Gillian Wearing partially or completely disguises subjects in order to emphasise alternative aspects of their identity. Masks, in particular, are a favourite form of concealment.
Here is a catalogue containing some of Wearing's work which I have looked at. Whilst my artwork is going to take a very different form the theme of abstracting identity is common:


http://www.maureenpaley.com/artists/gillian-wearing



In a 1994 video, members of the public responding to a small-ad invitation to "Confess all" donned party-style rubber masks in order to anonymously reveal misdemeanours, vices and personal traumas." and also, on a series of paintings of pin up models:
"Yet each portrait (commissioned from illustrator Jim Burns) is of a real subject - two men and five women - who Wearing located through an ad placed online, then sent for a make-over and photo-shoot before passing the images to the painter."
(http://www.modernedition.com/art-articles/contemporary-art-portraits/the-contemporary-portrait.html)

Wearing orchestrates the creation of an artwork, but does not "make" the work. I am interested in this distance.

I enjoyed The Michael Landy work "acts of kindness" that was a John Kaldor public arts project in 2011. More info: http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/_webapp_1441197/MICHAEL_LANDY_2011
Again this is the sourcing and presentation of other peoples experience/opinions.

This is vastly removed from the idea of the genius. Perhaps this concept will weave back into my work somehow.

History of the concept of creativity

This isn't a reputable source. But it's a nice starting point for looking at the history of how creativity was viewed. If I read this and want to research more I will find reputable sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_concept_of_creativity

Collaboration and education

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/education/7-12/professional-development/learning-symposium/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Tertiary+Update+March+2012&utm_content=Tertiary+Update+March+2012+CID_1a4370d49af879c8ca62466d8c6a0f31&utm_source=Email+marketing+software&utm_term=learning+symposium

Just thought to put this here. Last post was thinking about collaboration. This symposium looks at contemporary art practices involved in collaboration and also collaboration within the art education context. I'm always interested in education links (I'm an education student). May attend depending on funds.

Idea: impersonal instruction

Giving a structure/rubric/scaffold for allowing other people the opportunity to question/visualise the origin of their own creativity e.g. a set of instructions.

Some other artists who do similar things:

Sol Lewitt and his instructions for wall drawings, although these are more about leaving behind the means for creativity whereas I would like to explore the metaphysical origin of creativity.

Vito Acconci's Following Piece (1969) exampled in our first lecture. He devised instructions for his work which evolved according to that structure.

Some community arts project I read about a while ago spoke of a woman who left lumps of clay at the doorstep of every home in the suburb she lived in. People were instructed to create something and then return it to her and the resulting works were displayed as a group exhibition.


An article I read The Gaze in the Expanded Field by Norman Bryson (1988) in Vision and Visuality (ed. Hal Foster) the Japanese practice of flung ink painting, Ch'an painting, is exemplar of renouncing control over creativity. Ink is let loose to the universe and falls according to its laws.

Example of Ch'an painting.

In this same article I was introduced to Nishitani, Japanese philosopher who says "an objects presence can be defined only in negative terms... what appears as the object x is only the difference between x and the total surrounding field. Similarly what appears as the 'surrounding field' is only its difference from the object x." (pg. 98). Perhaps creativity may be explained in such a way, an exploration of its absence might help define what it is.

Similarly Shri Shantananda Saraswati (Advaita Vedanta philosopher) said "to begin to be who you are you must come out of what you are not" (school of philosophy coursework). These points of view offer a different way of working: from subtraction or deletion instead of searching. I like this idea, and I want to find/research more artists who work with this.

Origin of ideas

My idea for this project came from conversation with an architect who introduced me to the idea of genius/daemon. He suggested I watch the talk (below) that Elizabeth Gilbert made on her interpretation of this idea.

Proposal first draft

Below is the first draft for my project proposal. 

Project Proposal, Semester 1 2012

Information MUST be typed and in this format. DO NOT EXCEED WORD LIMIT.

First drafts should be presented in class in Week 1.

Revised and refined version to be presented with the body of work for assessment.

Student Name: Emma Barry

Student No.: z3335085

SART3340 Drawing/Painting 4A and SART3360 Drawing/Painting 4B

Draft no.: 1                                                          Date: 26/2/2012

1. Title of Project (optional):

2. Brief description of project (50 words):

An exploration of the ancient concept of the ‘genius’ or ‘daemon’: a divine intellectual spirit that enters an artist and is responsible for creative works. I hope to create artworks that represent this idea as a redeeming grace for artists who become overwhelmed with responsibility, depression, doubt or fear of the creative act.

3. About the project (300 words).

Concept

Author Elizabeth Gilbert stresses that more than practitioners in any other field; artists are seen as prone to being mentally unstable. Ancient Greek/Roman artists would practice their craft to a high degree of mastery and only then would be considered capable of executing the ideas given to them by a visiting daemon/genius. My artwork will be offerings/invitations to the daemon to bring inspiration, and signify an undercutting of the ego: through sacrifice of technical skill an artist renounces the fear, depression, anxiety and egoism that can come from the creative process/laying claim to creativity. My artwork will take the form of technical drawings imitating the practice undertaken by ancient Grecian art students coupled with a performance of the sacrificial destruction of these works (documentation of this performance will be considered based on further research into sacrifice).

Research methodology

The main research process will be the practice of attempting to reach verisimilitude in drawing from life and busts, informed by literature on the drawing processes taught to Ancient Greek/Roman art students. For the project to expand and be flexible I intend that research into the spiritual/religious origins of the daemon/genius and research of current cultural practices that invoke the genius will allow me to experiment with different options as far as the visual form and process of my artmaking (and its destruction) is concerned.

Contextualisation

Creativity is a philosophical question not yet answered and its exploration is often the subject of artmaking, as such this work is a continued exploration of ancient ideas in an attempt to understand its relevance in the contemporary artworld. I envisage that actions of “offering” ones “talent” to a higher force is liberating from the dysfunctional outlooks of narcissism or depression that can result from an outlook of ownership over artmaking (a very pervasive cultural notion of artists). If the genius/daemon concept could be represented as a positive and viable psychological construct to assist in being resilient against these negative polar states of being then this work is timely because our future depends on capable and constructive creative practitioners.

Had our second tutorial today and my tutor gave me good feedback. One interesting ideas that came up which I will need to consider and develop:
- using the self as conduit for other peoples creativity, example suggested was the procurement of other peoples artworks and being a medium for their exposure i.e. becoming a dealer in art. This would eliminate the personal self. However this does not relate to the genius/daemon.